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Monday, February 20, 2012

The Christmas War: Scenario One - Breakthrough AAR

Initial Deployment

INITIAL DEPLOYMENT AND TURN ONE

(Note: I was so frustrated
with my first attempt at playing this scenario with 5150:Star Army that I
decided to replay it after changing up some stats. I'll discuss all
that in another post. For now, this scenario was fought with two PDF
squads (Assault Rifles and SAW, SB armor, PDF QRS) against Cylons
(Assault Rifle, HB Armor but using BTA Penetration Chart, Custom QRS). All were Rep 4. I
"reset" the game from Turn Two of the initial game since the flanking
manuever the PEFs pulled off (in their table driven movement) was a cool
maneuver. )

As we join the
action in progress, Green Squad has sent a fireteam (2 figures with ARs)
forward to see what PEF Alpha is. The rest of Green and the entirety
of Blue remain behind the defensive line about halfway down the board. A
severe thunderstorm has cut ranges down to 12cm.

Green Fireteam A
moves through cover until it can spot PEF Alpha. The PEF resolves into
two squads, Cylon Alpha and Cylon Beta (with leader) placed in line one
behind the other (using some chart I found somewhere on the Yahoo group -
there's no guidance in the rules for this). (Oh, and according to the
PEF resolution they were supposed to be in defensive positions -- but
I've made it a house rule that PEFs on the attack can't be in prepared
defensive positions!)

Green Fireteam A
uses its two inch move to drop down out of sight. Fireteam B holds
position, hoping that A can Fast Move back to join them in cover and
bolster the line.

The Feds roll an initial intervention roll of 5 (see the scenario, but basically they will intervene in the next linked scenario if the PDF can hold out until this total reaches 35)

So -- TURN TWO:ActivationCylon:1 Human:5 (Fed Intervention Total:5)

Cylon
Alpha moves forward to cover to fire. Green Fireteam A (GFTA) is the only
element able to see this due to the rain. Insight test results in them
firing - and knocking down one Cylon who resolves to OOF! A good start
for the PDF boys!

Red stones are OOF; blue are stunned

Cylon Alpha snap fires back, resulting in stunning one member of fireteam A.

Cylon Beta moves up
to cover to fire. The remaining figure in Green Fireteam A passes zero
on his Insight -- uh-oh! Beta easily puts him OOF but only stuns the
already stunned survivor of GFTA.

PEF Beta moves up to cover just out of sight of PDF Blue Squad. PEF Theta moves up as well.

Fed intervention roll: 3 The distant sounds of gunfire are barely heard above the rumble of the monsoon.

TURN THREEActivationCylon: 5 Human:3 (Fed Intervention Total:8)Blue
Squad activates first and sends a single figure up to scout PEF Beta on the right flank.
If that's another Cylon squad, Blue needs to stay put. Otherwise they
can move to the center to flank Cylons Alpha and Beta.

And indeed the PEF resolves to
reinforcements....Strafing Run! Hmmm...my first thought is that I didn't think about what
happens to the intervention roll if the Feds get strafed! However, the
run proceeds from section 3 through section 1 -- the top third of the
table so no humans are at risk. Phew! (And geez those rules are hard to figure out -- I mark them to be re-written in clearer language)

I decide to detach a second scout from Blue Squad to go check out PEF Theta while the rest of the squad
moves to attack Cylons Alpha and Beta. The SAW can't quite make it into
the 12cm sight range so the squad holds back -- discretion being the
better part of valor and all that jazz. Green squad will suffer slightly but that's better than putting Blue squad in the thick of things without all their firepower.

The remnant of Green Fireteam A recovers from being stunned but stays prone behind cover.

The rest of Green squad shuffles left, staying in cover and putting the SAW in the middle of the
line, waiting for the rush from the Cylons.

Fed intervention
roll: 7! The strafing run was duly noted by shipboard sensors and
causes some concern. Mr. Spork and Dr. Hatfield get into a heated
argument over the Prime Directive.

TURN FOURActivationC: 3 H:6 (Feds: 15 - halfway to intervention)

With the cylons gaining the initiative, Cylon
Alpha leads the attack and with the 2 inch move all 4 advance far enough
to bring the last figure of Green Fireteam A into sight. Green A snap
fires and misses (due to it being snap fire - dang! - that could have been a glorious last stand). Cylon Alpha takes a
received fire check and....kills, kills, kills Green Fireteam A oviously,
obviously, obviously dead.

Cylon Alpha continues their move (only the first figure had moved
into sight of Green A. The rest moved up under the 2 inch move rule).
This brings them immediately into sight of the rest of Green Squad and the
entire Cylon fireteam is able to advance under the 2 inch move rule to being
in-sight. This is going to be bloody!

Green Fireteam B passes in-sight and knocks down 2 Cylons -- 1 stunned and 1 OOF!
The Cylon received fire OOFs a single figure -- but it's the SAW! The leader and squaddie remnants of Green B duck back.

Cylon Beta squad passes zero dice on its (non player) movement roll, causing them
to "advance to cover". Hmm. They are already in cover. And they did
pass zero dice so -- they pause. (Again this was a judgment call --
there was no one in-sight due to the inclement weather so they couldn't
fire. They could have advanced toward the next piece of cover, but I
judged there should be some penalty for passing zero dice.)

With the Cylon advance stalled due to the bad movement roll, the PDF get a chance to regain initiative in the fight -- and boy, do they!

The situation after Blue Squad's "Mad Minute"!

Green squad advances back
through the woods to fire at Cylon Alpha. In retrospect, this was a bad
move but it turned out well as the cylons missed both shots and on the
received fire check Green Squad manages to stun both. Green then active
fires and stuns both again.

Blue squad advances to fire on the flank of Cylon Beta. The leader,
SAW and one squaddie manage to find cover while the other two squaddies
go prone in the open.

Cylon Beta fires on the In-Sight check and takes one of the squaddies in the open OOF.
But on the received fire check -- omg! Blue Squad opens up with a
mad minute of firing which results in THREE OD results, including the
leader. And they follow this with active fire, hitting the last
remaining Cylon twice. The damage roll comes up snake eyes and Beta is
_dead_.

Fed intervention roll: 4"He's right, Spork. These people are
potential new conquests of the United Confederation of Planets. Those
robots will never accept our rule and more importantly they won't buy
our trade goods. Besides this won't be the first time we've flushed the
Prime Directive when it's convenient to a plot point. Take us back to
the Apathy and we'll see what Starfleet Command has to say about it."

TURN SIXC:4 H:2 (Feds 25)

I fudged this one. :-) With only
two Cylons left on the board, I decided to charge them into combat. I didn't know what
might happen, but it would be glorious! Or not. The PDF manage to
stand their ground and fire at the approaching toasters, knocking both
down and sending them out of the fight (no doubt some circuitry was
knocked loose).

And PEF Theta turned out to be reinforcements, limited to the Pass
1d6 column of the table due to the strafing run earlier -- and with a 6
on the roll it turned out there was nothing there at all.

Analysis
With no PEFS and no ememy left, the PDF are the victors! They've
managed to slow down the Cylon advance, and more importantly have shown
their potential Confederation allies the danger of the Cylon menace.
(Might the Cylons be the distant ancestors of the Borg???)

I'm pretty satisfied now with the play balance of the two sides, so
I'm going to up the numbers on the Cylon squads to 5 members. (Clearly
the 4-man squads used here were simply recon units.) Nevertheless, this battle
easily could have gone either way. The resolution of the second PEF
was critical -- had that been another squad or if the strafing run had
done damage then the result would have been different. Or if the
devastating fusillade from Blue Squad on turn 5 had been just slightly
less devastating. Or if the weather hadn't reduced visibility....

A good game leaves you wanting to try it again. I'm sorely tempted
to set this up and play it again from Turn Two just to see what
happens.